Guilt is Good

New Years is far enough in the past that those resolutions should be flying out the window by now. So if you're feeling weak, check out this weeks Time Out Chicago for a cover I shot for their issue about guilty pleasures. Mine is Ricotta cheese, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Now for the unadulterated version.

Things that made me happy today.

This stairway near the Field Museum.


A potential life saver.

Setting a tone.

They say that what you do on New Years day sets the tone for the rest of your year.
If true then I will be cold for the remainder of 2009. I took a bike ride in the 27 degree air to do some location scouting so I had my camera. These pictures show you why Midwesterners have the fortitude of Emperor Penguins.


Monroe Harbor, frozen.


Oak Street Beach bike path, frozen.


Me on a pier in Lake Michigan, almost frozen.

Happy New Year

PDN again. Telling Stories.

I had another great opportunity to have my work mentioned by Photo District News Magazine (PDN) this month. This time in an interview with Moya McAllister, Photography Director at Story Worldwide.



As writer Scott Tillitt tells it, Story Worldwide's business is focused on "...branded magazines, corporate newsletters, direct mail, annual reports, online campaigns, Web sites and the like."

I shot the inventor and founder of the frozen ice cream company, Dippin' Dots at their Kentucky factory for the cover of Compass, the UPS customer magazine. The story feature is about how UPS is able to ship these hyper-frozen morsels straight to your door without letting a single one
melt.

Speaking about their choice to work with me, Tillit explains that "...the creative director, had wanted a fun, tongue-in-cheek image and McAllister immediately thought of Truglia's humorous business portraits." (Business has been a little funny lately wouldn't you agree?)

The December 2008 issue of PDN also showed my work in an interview with Liz Miller-Gershfeld, Senior Art Buyer for Energy BBDO.

The first 1/2 foot.

Fresh snowfall on Northerly Island, Chicago

The Field Museum: Hiding in plain sight

A great time to visit the Field Museum of natural history is during any winter blizzard in Chicago because it's empty and most creepy. I visited the home of Sue the dinosaur today as the city was being blanketed by 6 inches of fresh powder. I was actually prop shopping at the gift shop for an upcoming shoot for Discover Magazine with a prominent evolutionary biologist. After which I took a stroll into a long darkened hallway.


Deer hiding in a diorama

The most extraordinary thing I rediscovered was the museum's wealth of gorgeous
taxidermy dioramas. Hundreds of beautifully preserved animals mounted into painted environments, some of them actually give you vertigo while peering into them.


Great Horned Owl diorama

Dozens and dozens of glass vitrines of exotic animals acting out the frozen dramas of their natural lives meander along the first floor of the old museum.


Zebra family diorama

As a photographer, I can not ignore the brilliance of Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto
who made nature dioramas into gorgeous photographs in his own way.


Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2004 Gorilla